Prince’s younger sister, retired singer Tyka Nelson, died Monday morning. She was 64.
The “Marc Anthony’s Tune” singer’s son, President, confirmed her death to the Minnesota Star Tribune. He did not provide additional details.
The only full sibling of the larger-than-life Grammy winner, Nelson was a musician in her own right.
Though she released four albums from 1988 to 2011, she told the outlet in June that she “really wasn’t a singer.
“I’m a writer. I just happen to be able to sing. I enjoy singing,” she told the Star Tribune.
Noting at the time that she was “getting older,” Nelson said she was in the process of penning a memoir.
Nelson made the remarks ahead of what was supposed to be her farewell concert, but she got sick and had to forego it. The kickoff to retirement would have been her first public performance since a 2018 show in Australia.
Also in June, Nelson told the outlet that it wasn’t until she attended a Paisley Park-organized event a year after Prince died of an accidental drug overdose in April 2016 at just 57 years that she realized he “was that big.”
She also detailed “getting mad” during her last conversation with Prince, just four days before his death and he “kept avoiding questions.
“He’d change the subject, make a joke and then we’d both laugh,” she shared.
Nelson is survived by her two sons, President and Sir, half-sisters Sharon and Norrine Nelson and half-brother Omarr Baker.
